Steam Client Update Released

[Brick Tamland]

A new steam client has been released and is being automatically downloaded.

 

General

• New feature: Shader Pre-Caching. Whenever possible, depending on hardware and driver support, Steam can download pre-compiled shaders for your specific video card. This reduces load times and in-game stuttering during the first few launches of OpenGL- and Vulkan-based games on supported hardware. This feature may use a small amount of additional bandwidth as Steam uploads and analyzes a shader usage report after each run of the game. The feature can be disabled via a new entry in the Settings dialog.

• Fixed issues with full-screen mode not scaling video content correctly in the Steam Client

• Fixed a UI issue that made it difficult to install new games if a previous installation dialog box was still active

• Fixed several rare crashes and hangs reported by customers

• Updated web views to Chromium v62.0.3202.62

Windows

• Fixed an issue where the Windows Mixed Reality for SteamVR drivers would sometimes not install correctly

• Fixed a bug where launching a game could cause the primary monitor to switch as if Big Picture mode were active, even though it is not

macOS

• Fixed a crash on startup that could occur if a different application was previously set to autostart, and then did not clean up its autostart entry correctly

Linux

• Fixed creating desktop and application menu shortcuts

• Added detection and a workaround for certain titles that shipped with broken Steamworks SDK libraries

SteamVR

• Fixed the occasional brief appearance of a blank console window when starting Steam or launching a VR game.

Steam Input

• Changed Per-Game Steam Input opt-out setting to allow Force On or Force Off per game in addition to the global controller type based settings. This means you can turn on configuration for a single game while globally leaving configuration settings off.

• Added “Launcher Mode” for controllers which are not opted in to Steam Input Configuration. If we detect that the game is in a launcher, the right stick and right trigger will act as a mouse/trigger respectively, allowing the user to navigate the launch with a controller until they get into the game proper. This feature can be disabled by selecting the “Force Off” option in controller settings for the game in the Big Picture controls.

• Added "Always On" binding for setting bindings to take effect when an action set or layer is enabled. This can be used to set up modifier keys that are always active in a layer, changing LED brightness or color based on a set or layer, etc. and can also interact with activators to do start press behavior or turbo, for example.

• Added new tab in Configuration Browser for configs exported by your Steam Friends. These configs will now also show up in the community tab even if they would otherwise not qualify to be shown when ranked by votes or playtime. Note that only exported configs will show up, not personal configs.

• Added an "Empty Binding" binding action intended for use in layers. Essentially this is a special binding that does absolutely nothing, so bindings can be removed from a layer, as the default state of layering "nothing" means use whatever is below that layer. This special binding can also be detected by radial menus and will eliminate that item from being available in the menu.

• Added a “Remove Icon” option to the radial/touch menu icon selection screen.

• Added a binding to set LED color according to Xinput slot

• Reworked detection of windows requiring Lizard Mode for the Steam Controller. Also added a bindable Lizard Mode toggle action.

• Added support for several dozen Xbox-compatible controllers via data collected from users. These controllers are now treated as Xbox controllers instead of generic gamepads.

• Added support for several PS4 controllers: HORI TAC4, HORI TAC PRO, Hitbox PS4 Arcade Stick, and Venom PS4 Arcade Stick

• Fixed a configuration UI error where native actions could be selected in non-native games

• Fixed a bug where source-specific default changes weren't propagated correctly through layers

• Fixed game actions buttons being able to navigate off of their own list of actions

• Fixed some issues with typing accented and other non-english characters via the On-Screen Keyboard

• Fixed on-screen keyboard becoming stuck on-screen when controller is disconnected

• Fixed many UI focus and flow issues when configuring or personalizing a controller

• Fixed a bug with the dialog for first time config selection when a game doesn’t have a recommended config.

• Fixed several save bugs involving configurations with deleted action sets

• Fixed a bug where new developer configurations would show no buttons available to be bound.

• Fixed a bug where layers of native mode types could stack incorrectly with other layers

• Fixed Big Picture configurations not accepting changes to the Face Button assignments

• Fixed Big Picture Parental PIN Pad not responding properly to controller input.

 

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